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Canadian-born gymnast Marisa Dick mired in Olympic controversy

A months-long saga surrounding which gymnast would get the Caribbean nation’s Olympic nod pitted the beloved hometown girl against the outsider, with enough twists and turns for a Hollywood movie.

Trinidad and Tobago's Marisa Dick performs on the uneven bars as she takes part in the women's qualification competition at the worlds in Glasgow, Scotland. The Canadian-born Dick was given her country's entry to Rio, but not without much controversy. (Matthias Schrader / The Associated Press)

Canadian-born dual citizen Marisa Dick will make history at this summer’s Rio Olympics when she becomes the first gymnast to represent Trinidad and Tobago at a Summer Games.

Yet it’s an honour not everyone in the Caribbean country believes Dick deserves — including her top competitor, Thema Williams.

The months-long saga surrounding which gymnast would get the Olympic nod pitted the beloved hometown girl against the outsider, with enough twists and turns for a Hollywood movie. Allegations of corruption flew, reputation-damaging half-naked photos were unearthed and promises broken, culminating in one snap judgment that decided both girls’ Olympic fate.

Williams alleges the Trinidad and Tobago Gymnastic Federation breached their contractual agreement when, in a last-minute move, it withdrew her from an Olympic test event in April.

Dick, 19, competed instead, after hopping on a flight from Canada less than 48 hours before she was scheduled to compete. She would win a spot in Rio.

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In a news conference weeks after the test event,Williams, 20, alleged the federation, and four of its members in particular, conspired to have her removed.

“It was not really at the last minute, they have been trying (to get me out). It was not something that was surprising to all those who have been around me and experiencing all the things they tried and all the attempts they made to stop me. I am not surprised it has come to this,” she told the Trinidad Guardian newspaper.

Williams is pursing legal action against the federation, president David Marquez, first vice-president Akil Wattley, as well as second vice-president Ricardo Lue Shue and assistant treasurer Donna Lue Shue, a couple who are allegedly family friends of Dick’s.

In a pre-action protocol letter obtained by the Star dated May 16 and addressed to the federation, Williams’ lawyers allege the gymnast suffered damages because of what they are calling a breach of contract.

They are demanding compensation of roughly $2.2 million.

The legal action is being pursued to redress the deprivation of the “valuable” opportunity to be not just an Olympian but the first female gymnast from her country, Williams’ lawyer Martin Daly told the Star via email.

Plus, he said, at 20 years old Williams, who has trained since age five, was the optimum age to participate in female gymnastics.

“For Thema, the deprivation may amount to the destruction of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity,” he said.

Legal proceedings are scheduled to start next week.The gymnastics federation declined to comment for this story, as did Dick.

The controversy, so vehement that the sport of gymnastics — generally of interest only during the Olympics — has garnered attention across the Caribbean.

It started when Dick and Williams competed for Trinidad and Tobago at last fall’s world artistic gymnastic championships in Glasgow.

It was an important competition for both athletes. Their federation stipulated the best-place finisher at the championships in Scotland would be the one to compete in the Olympic test event, starting April 17.

Odds were, whoever participated in that event would qualify for Rio.

Dick finished 77th overall in the competition while Williams placed 59th overall, securing her spot at the test event.

Still, in terms of scores, the two were neck-and-neck, said Lauren Hopkins, founder of The Gymternet, one of North America’s foremost gymnastics websites.

Given the parity between the athletes, Hopkins was surprised by Trinidad and Tobago’s promise to send the world championship winner to the test event.

It’s rare for a country to base who competes at a test event solely on the results of one meet, especially when both athletes are performing at similar levels.

“I think that is, in the end, what made people upset, because they said, ‘Here’s the one stipulation for making the team’ and then they didn’t really want to follow that once they saw how close it was,” she said.

Despite the federation’s promise, there were months of speculation in the local newspaper about who would compete in April.

In January, Dick spoke to the CBC for an article about her patented move, a unique mount that sees her fly from the springboard and land on the balance beam in the splits.

She performed it at the worlds for the first time in the sport’s history, and it was subsequently named “The Marisa Dick” in the official Code of Points, the rulebook that outlines the scoring system in gymnastics.

At that time, she talked about the strain on the two athletes.

“Only one of us gets to go to the Olympics, so it’s kind of a cutthroat time. But it’s exciting.”

A month later, the federation was sent a half-naked Instagram photo of Williams, breaching a morality clause in her contract.

And then, days later, a similar Snapchat photo of Dick surfaced. Both were sent to a discipline committee and Williams was re-confirmed as Trinidad and Tobago’s test event entry in March.

So it was a surprise to some when federation officials pulled Williams from the competition on April 16 — the day before she was scheduled to compete — citing an ankle injury.

Williams and her coach, John Geddert, found out she was scrapped only that morning.

Geddert said he sent an email to a federation member lamenting a poor training session the previous day, but both maintain Trinidad and Tobago’s purported No. 1 was fit to compete.

“I never stated she was hurt, I never stated she was injured, unwilling, unable to prepare, unable to compete,” Geddert told the Star shortly after Williams took her case to the Trinidad and Tobago Olympic Committee for a review.

Her attempt to have their decision overturned was unsuccessful.

The Olympic committee ruled the federation’s action respected International Gymnastic Federation rules. As Trinidad and Tobago’s place at the test event was not nominative, selecting and registering an athlete was at the federation’s discretion.

Geddert disagrees.

“(The federation) violated their national team agreement by not talking to me, by not talking to the medical personnel, by not talking to the athlete. That’s all listed in their national team agreement. They just made a knee-jerk reaction and replaced her.”

But Hopkins, who was at the test event, wasn’t surprised the federation strayed from its No. 1. She said Williams didn’t seem injured in training but was inconsistent.

“It wasn’t coming together for her, basically. She had a lot of falls.”

Hopkins said given the sports’ governing body’s rules, she doesn’t see a basis for Williams’ argument.

“(The federation) had to make the decision that was best for them and their goal was to get an Olympic spot. If they thought Thema couldn’t do it, they were within their rights to pull her and bring Marisa in.”

When it comes to the compensation Williams is asking for, Brian Cooper, head of sports business consultancy S&E Sponsorship group in Toronto, said the gymnast is going to have a hard time making a case.

Cooper said even Olympians expected to medal ― a category neither Williams nor Dick fall into ― don’t generally make the millions she’s asking for, especially in a sport like gymnastics that doesn’t get worldwide attention between Olympic cycles.

“If she just made the team, she could have had some speaking engagements but this is not, especially in a country of that size, it’s not like she was going to be able to making a living off of (being an Olympian.)”

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